January 31, 2006	Tuesday	Muharram 1, 1427

KARACHI, Jan 30: The Sindh Textbook Board is unlikely to publish two separate books of history and geography for the students of Class VI in the province as a replacement of “Social Studies” book for the ensuing academic session, said educational circles.

It was learnt that about one year back the federal education ministry had asked the provincial textbook authorities to stop publishing Social Studies books for students of Class VI, VII and VIII and prepare separately new books of history and geography only.

At present students from classes I to VIII are given one book a combined study of history, geography and civics, under the title Social Studies which changes with “Pakistan Studies” in the case of Class IX to XII students.

Under the federal government scheme, now students in question will not be able to study on the subject of civics which encompasses mostly education about rights and responsibilities of citizens and function and significance of different civic institutions and justice organizations, said a source in the education department, with the mention that contents pertaining to civics were being not included in any other book meant for students of Class VI to VIII.

A source privy to publication of books in the government sector said that the STB which had planned to start allocations of all books pertaining to classes I to X for the new session in February after the procurement of printing papers from mills and other suppliers would have to face serious problems if it did not receive the manuscript reviewed and approved from the federal government in due course of time.

It was learnt that other provinces were also faced with some problems regarding the history and geography books. None of the provinces have been issued NOCs and manuscripts cleared by the federal government and if the textbook boards are made to wait for the new titles materials for a longer period then the entire process of printing of textbooks for classes I to X will be jeopardized, said the source.

When contacted the Director Technical of STB, Masood Qureshi, said that his board had already submitted the Urdu version of the proposed books of geography and history to the federal government’s curriculum wing for scrutiny. After getting the feedback on the manuscript, we will remove deficiencies or carry out corrections in the scripts for a final review of the Islamabad’s curriculum wing, which will finally issue us an NOC; he described the drill prior to undertaking any printing and publication of the new books in question.

To another question, he said that once the approved Urdu version was received, the committee of experts and translators would be tasked to prepare the Sindhi and English manuscripts of the books, which would again be sent to the curriculum wing.

Mr Qureshi said that geography and history books for class VII and VIII would be prepared and supplied to the students concerned only once the Class VI books on the two subjects were made available to the students. We are trying to get the books in question prepared in time so that it could be supplied to students of government schools, along with books of other subjects, under a free distribution of books scheme of the Sindh government, he added.